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Saturday, May 01, 2010

Ear Pierces

CJ had her ears pierced several years ago, at one of those kiosks in the mall. We waited the requested three months and a bit more, then changed out the earrings in our excitement.

BIG MISTAKE.

This is when the problems started happening and eventually, CJ was done with pierced ears.

A couple of years ago, I mentioned to her that a young girl, of about 8, had come into Dogstar (while I was there) to have her ears pierced. Rachel, who worked there, had explained to me how much more 'safe' and less problematic it was to pierce ears the way they do it (via needle) vs. the piercing guns at the kiosks in the mall. I later explained this to CJ and out of the blue a week ago, she mentioned she wanted to get her ears pierced at the "tattoo place".

Tim mentioned I should take her back to Dogstar (no, I haven't finished my tattoo) and have Rachel do it. So I called to set up an appointment with Rachel, only to find that she has not worked there for at least six months!! Has it really been that long since I was last there?

I knew of a place on Hillsborough Street that my friend Amy D. had gone to, so I called them up to see if they would pierce my 11 year old's ears. He explained to me the laws of the land and as long as I had proof that we were related as mom and daughter, he could do it. Even for my seven year old, even though I didn't think Mi-Mi would be ready.

So CJ hounded me day-after-day: when can we go to get my ears pierced. I finally mentioned it would be Friday or Saturday morning at the earliest. We went Friday, since I was home sick. We didn't go when I *felt* sick; more like when the drugs kicked in and I was amped up!

We hit Progress Body Piercing at a slow time, although it was lively while we were there. And gratefully, I still received one-on-one attention. I am grateful because 1) I think of this as excellent customer service and 2) I like to be the center of attention most times.

So Seth, my lovely man, was the center-of-attention-giver. We talked about the two options CJ had for piercing her ears and she made a decision on what she wanted....

...then I come along and ask about getting an indy bar in my ear. I had asked earlier in the week, when I called, so I had an idea of what it involved. What I didn't gather was, I apparently have vulcan ears and an indy bar would not look like I would like in my deformed ear.

Seth drew out a picture of my warped ear and showed me how flawed it was, and what the bar would look like in such a grotesque feature of an ear. I wasn't convinced that it wouldn't look like I had perceived, although I did think "yet another deformity I have inherited: sleestack head and now, vulcan ears.

As he pointed out other ways to make it work, I saw a three prong thingy and asked about that. The light bulb went off in Seth's eyes and he started working with my fucked up ear to see if it would work. It would, he said and it would be really cool. That's all I needed to hear and I was "IN".

We left so he could set up and take care of other customers. This is when we hit the "Purple House" on Glenwood, which is really called Turkish Delights. Me and the girls have wanted to try this place out in forever and finally, we made it happen. I LOVE THIS PLACE!!

But I noticed, after getting three separate scoops of ice cream for the three of us, CJ was not eating hers. This is a sign of illness, as CJ only picks at everything that is NOT ice cream. She told me she was nervous about getting her ears pierced. I told her there was no pressure for her to do it; she should do it when she wants...but to be prepared at how she might feel later for coming out to get it done, but not doing it.

This would not stop me. In fact, when we returned to Progress, Seth offered that I could come back when she was ready...I guess, a way out? But as mentioned before, I was amped and IN.

The girls would not come with me to the room to see it happen. That was probably good. It wasn't very painful. But this comes from someone who, dare I say, has a high tolerance for pain? But it's not the high tolerance that I have, but also, the *appreciation* for pain that makes this, um, less intimidating.

**WARNING: DESCRIPTIVE PIERCING DETAILS BELOW**
What I got is a "3 point industrial", which is three pokes of a puncturer (not a needle) into my upper cartilage.

After he marked the areas of where the holes would be put in, I laid down on my right side so he could work with the left ear.

He had me do some yoga breathing (my words, not his) to relax. As he got to the first puncture, he told me to take a long, slow, deep breath then when he said to release it? That's when the puncture took place. And yes, it does hurt but for me, not really...but I could hear the sound of a soft "pop" as the cartilage is punctured. That was cool and sick at the same time.

He then would put one side of the indy in and screw the back on, then finagle the indy to get placed correctly before proceeding.

So a three point indy means: I got three punctures. I had to endure this process two more times.

And the result? Amazing. Seth was all over it: 'this turned out better than I expected!' And I was, of course, amazed. More freaky than I had anticipated.

CJ and MiMi were not as happy as I was. Tim, of course, just sang superfreak when he saw it (he likes me like that ;)).

More gory details: blood everywhere. Who knew that much blood comes out those little parts of our ears?

This morning I had to soak it in salt water for about 10 minutes. When I got my ear out of there, I had a bowl full of bloody water. WOW! It had that much blood because it doesn't hurt that bad!

When I got to the bathroom to clean it up, I noticed one of the holes had a lot of dried blood...and a tress of hair next to it looked like it had bloody matter. WOW!

I cleaned it up by showering and rinsing it because, I would not have enough q-tips to clean up the amount of blood that poured out of my ear cartilage.